Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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43. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the number of refugees who have not been provided with accommodation since the change of policy announced on 24 January 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26001/23]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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On 24 January of this year the Minister announced a new policy to leave some international protection refugees without accommodation. That, as could have been predicted, has resulted in hundreds of refugees living on the streets, making them, as was warned would happen, very vulnerable. As day follows night, they have faced absolutely unjustified racist attacks from racists and fascists. I want to know how many refugees have been left without accommodation since this policy was introduced in January and how many the Department is currently accommodating.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the Deputy will be aware, since the start of last year the State has responded to the largest humanitarian crisis it has ever faced. In spite of the unprecedented pressures for accommodation, more than 100,000 people arriving in Ireland in that time have found shelter and safety here. Approximately 85,000 of those have been provided with accommodation through my Department and, of those, 21,000 are international protection applicants and 64,000 are Ukrainian beneficiaries of temporary protection.

Notwithstanding that effort, we have since January been unable to offer accommodation immediately to all those who have sought it. I do not agree with the Deputy's characterisation of this as a policy decision. It is simply a lack of available accommodation and a matter of having to make determinations in the context of a limited supply of accommodation.

The State has a legal and a moral obligation to assess the claims of those who seek refuge and to provide accommodation and supports in line with the recast reception conditions directive. That is a duty I take very seriously and one I very clearly acknowledged we have not met to this group of people.

At close of business today, there were 189 people awaiting an offer of accommodation. More than 1,063 had previously been unaccommodated but have since received a retrospective offer of accommodation since their arrival in Ireland.

The State is dealing with a 600% increase in international protection applications since the start of 2021. This year alone, 5,880 additional beds have been secured to accommodate international protection applicants. My Department will continue to use all available means to procure accommodation in order that unaccommodated persons are accommodated as quickly as possible.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I would argue with the Minister that the announcement he made in January was deeply irresponsible and has left hundreds of people at risk. I say that because it was aimed specifically at international protection refugees. This has been a proxy for a policy operating along racial lines. It was not aimed at the greater number of Ukrainians who are coming in; it was aimed at international protection refugees, the majority of whom are black and brown men. It has opened up the potential of leaving them to the mercy of organised fascists and racial discrimination, which we know, and as I heard the Minister say earlier, has always existed in this society, but it has deepened and thickened. This has been a disgraceful, deliberate announcement that international protection refugees, that is, black and brown men, largely, will be left on the streets and will be not accommodated. In line with this-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Deputy, it is not appropriate to make that sort of criticism of a colleague. You are alleging something profoundly serious. I do not think it is in order in the House, under privilege, to make that sort of accusation.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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To make the accusation that the announcement specifically targeted international protection refugees?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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It is fair enough to make any political point you want, but I think that goes beyond the making of a political point.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am just stating fact; I am not making-----

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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No you are not; you are stating an opinion.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am not; I am stating fact. The announcement was targeted at international protection refugees.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Excuse me. You are stating an opinion in attributing to the Minister a particular motivation, and you are not in order in doing that.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am stating that the policy was targeted at international protection refugees, who are in the main black and brown men. It has left them very vulnerable on the streets, and we all know the story of the consequences of that.

My question to the Minister is how much more the Department can do. Nobody in this House has ever answered the following questions. What about Baggot Street hospital? What about the big empty Jurys Hotel in Ballsbridge? Those questions have never been answered, yet we have heard people such as Mel Reynolds, the renowned architect, give clear detail as to how those buildings could be used to house hundreds of people a stone's throw away from the offices of the IPAS.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I believe that the point about Baggot Street hospital has been addressed on many occasions. Baggot Street Hospital is not fit for human habitation right now. A very major and a very long-term piece of work has to be done in order to make it fit for habitation. That may well happen - I would love to see it happen - but it will not deliver accommodation in the short term. My focus has had to be on the short term because of the very immediate needs of the people we need to accommodate, the 189 who are not accommodated today. The reason we are in this situation is that, as we know, we have a housing crisis in this country so we did not have an available stock of accommodation like other EU member states did and we had to rely predominantly on the private sector. I do not like being in that position - the Government does not like being in that position - but that is a reality. For whatever reason, the private sector in certain sectors has made decisions to take in international protection applicants or to take in beneficiaries of temporary protection, and we did not have any more international protection accommodation.